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Nature 420, 614-615 (12 December 2002) | doi:10.1038/420614a
Nuclear physics: A triple point in nuclei
David Warner
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Abstract
Triple points describe states of matter in which three phases exist at the same time — such as solid, liquid and gas. The same phenomenon has now been found to occur between three different shapes of atomic nuclei.
The most familiar example of a triple point is in water: on a graph of pressure and temperature, the three lines separating the vapour–liquid, liquid–solid and solid–vapour phases all cross at a temperature of 273.15 K, that value being set to define the Kelvin scale of temperature.
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